Private courier companies: National Assembly body briefed on establishment of regulatory authority

A regulatory body is imperative to regulate the existing private courier companies and grant permission for establishment of new companies conforming to the standards. This was stated by the Secretary Communications while briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Communications, which met on Wednesday with Sufan Yusuf in the chair.
The meeting was held to discuss a Private Members Bill on 'Establishment of Pakistan Private Courier Services Regulatory Authority' and to review the implementation status of the recommendations of the committee made in its previous meetings. The Private Members Bill was moved by MNA Belum Hasnain.
The Secretary Communications presented a comparison between the bill prepared by the ministry and the Private Members bill. He said that all the points raised in the Private Members Bill had been incorporated in the government bill. He said that an establishment of a regulatory body was imperative to regulate the existing private courier companies and for granting permissions for establishment of new companies conforming to the standards.
The committee appreciated the efforts of the ministry, however, it called for incorporating views/input of the representatives of the private courier companies operating in Pakistan. The committee, therefore, constituted a three-member sub-committee under the convenership of MNA Muhammad Muzamil Qureshi to discuss the proposed legislation with the stakeholders and to present its recommendations to the committee within 30 days.
The committee while discussing the implementation status of its recommendations made in its meeting held on May 14, 2015 and July 2, 2015, directed Pakistan Post Office to accelerate the process of verification of degrees and educational certificates of its employees.
The Director General (Pakistan Post) informed the committee members that the verification of degrees of the officers had been completed, whereas, the verification of degrees of other staff was in progress. Discussing its recommendation regarding encroached properties of Pakistan Post, the committee expressed its displeasure and directed the Director General to actively pursue the court cases and get the properties retrieved from the encroachers. The committee also directed the Pakistan Post to prepare Standard Operational Procedures for conducting inquiries at departmental level into frauds committed by the employees of Pakistan Post.